"No sir-e-e!" declared this objector, shaking his head emphatically. "No more book agents can work me. The last slick one that tried to swindle me is in ja-a-il now, and I put him the-ere!"
He gloated in two or three tones.
Turning Back A Turn-down
"Good for you!" praised the undaunted salesman, who had come prepared for adamantine obstacles in his path. "If more book buyers would see that such rascals get what's coming to them, the rest of us salesmen, who represent square publishers squarely, would not have to prove so often that we are not crooks like some fellows who have happened to precede us in a territory. Please tell me the name of the man who swindled you. He might hit my publishers for a job after he gets out of jail, and I want to warn the boss against him. Sometimes those slick rascals pull the wool over our eyes, too. We are always on the lookout to avoid getting tangled up with them."
The salesman pulled out his note book and pencil. When the name was given, he wrote it down painstakingly. He asked the prospect to spell it for him; so that he would be sure to get it right. Then he thanked the man who had said he would have nothing more to do with book agents. Having "got around" the objector, the salesman proceeded with his selling talk on the encyclopedia, as if he had not been turned down flatly to begin with. In less than half an hour he had secured the signature of the prospect to a contract for the finest edition.
Be Ready for Opposition
If this salesman had not been thoroughly prepared to meet the strongest kind of mental and emotional opposition, he could not have come back so quickly with the appropriate answer that undermined the obstacle. You should be likewise ready for the "tough customers" one hears about. Practice in anticipation various ways of handling every imaginable objection. Then, when you face an actual difficulty, you will either have on the tip of your tongue a solution of the problem, or your forethought will assist you to devise on the spur of the moment the way to work out the right answer. Again we observe the importance of full preparation, in assuring successful salesmanship.
Two Essentials Of Resourcefulness
No quality is more important to the salesman than resourcefulness. Its first requisite is knowledge, particularly advance knowledge of the points that are likely to come up in the course of the selling process. The second is a mind trained to act quickly and effectively in using its knowledge. If you have these two essentials of resourcefulness, no objection will ever catch you napping. It will do you no good to look up the right answer after you leave the prospect. Nothing can be more exasperatingly worthless than an idea of something you "might have said" but could not think of until too late. Have all your facts on tap. And be practiced in making use of them in every imaginable way. Rare indeed will be cases that you are not prepared to handle successfully.
Practicing "Come-backs"